Changi Airport closes 2015 with record 55.4m passengers

It saw 364,330 landings and take-offs during the year.

Singapore Changi Airport capped 2015 with a record 55.4 million passengers and 364,330 landings and take-offs during the year, reflecting a 2.5% and 1.4% YoY increase respectively.

According to their media release, Singapore Changi Airport also saw airfreight movements remain stable at 185 million tonnes for the year.

In December 2015, Changi Airport registered a 3.9% YoY uptick of passenger movements to 5.29 million, the highest ever traffic achieved by the airport since opening in 1981.

Its daily record was also shattered on 19 December 2015, the Saturday before Christmas, with more than 192,000 passengers passing through during the 24 hours.

Traffic also stayed positive for most of the airport’s top ten country markets. The strongest growth was registered for Thailand, Vietnam, and China, surging 12.5%, 7.2% and 7% respectively. This was offset, though, by weaker showing for Indonesia and Hong Kong, which were down 7.3% and 1.2% respectively. While the broader trend for air travel was positive, the release noted that traffic to Singapore was impacted by the strength of SGD against certain regional currencies.

Meanwhile, Jakarta remained the busiest route, with 3.79 million passenger movements last year. Next on the list were Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Manila. 

The release further noted that Bangkok was Changi’s second fastest growing route among destinations, with at least half a million passengers handled in 2015. Colombo, Guanzhou, Mumbai and Tokyo rounded up the top five.